Captain Frederick John “Johnnie” Walker was known as the Scourge of the U-Boats and was instrumental in keeping vital sea-lanes open during the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1945. He entered the Royal Navy on 15 June 1909 and went to sea in 1914 as a midshipman on the battleship HMS AJAX, promoted to sub-lieutenant on 01 January 1916. In due course he was appointed Fleet Anti Submarine Officer in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets and in 1933 promoted to Commander.
He was later appointed as commander of HMS STARLING also depict on the St Helena stamp.
21 October 1941 laid down as a sloop on the Fairfield yard.
14 October 1942 launched under the name HMS STARLING (U 66) one of the modified Black Swan class
Displacement 1.490 ton standard, 1.925 tons full load, dim. 299.5 x 38.6 x 11.4ft.
Powered by Parsons geared turbines, 4.300 shp., twin shafts, speed 19.75 knots. Bunker capacity 390 tons, consumption 0.8 ton per hour by a speed of 10 knots.
Armament 4 twin and two single 40mm. guns. Hedgehog mortar and anti submarine depth charge equipment.
Crew 192
01 April 1943 completed.
She was commissioned under command of Capt. Walker, he was the Senior Officer of the Second Escort Group based in Liverpool. The Second Escort Group consisted of the sloops STARLING, CYGNET, WREN, KITE, WHIMBREL, WILD GOSE and WOODPECKER.
The group’s service in a support role meant that any contact could be investigated to the end, there being no direct responsibility for a convoy to impose restrictions.
She commenced her wartime career when she sailed from Liverpool 29 April 1943, she destroyed the U 202 on 02 June.
Second Escort Group shifted then the Devonport base, and from there the Group hunted the U-boats in the Gulf of Biscay.
24 June the U 119 was rammed and sunk by the STARLING, she was damaged by the ramming and entered Devonport Dockyard for repairs until 03 August.
After she left she was in collision with the UMBRA with minor damage, but she carried out her patrol in the Gulf of Biscay.
After this patrol again based in Liverpool.
06 November 1943 she sank the U 226 and U 842, after this patrol she went for a refit to Liverpool from 17 December 1943 until 27 January 1944.
After the refit she sank the U 592 on 31 January 1944, U 238 and U 734 on 09 February 1944. and the U 264 on 19 February, all in the same patrol voyage.
07 March 1944 she sailed out for a new patrol voyage together with her Group, the U 653 was sunk on 15 March, and then the Group went to Scapa Flow.
The Group then took part in convoy JW 58 to North Russia, in which she sank the U 961 on 29 March, after this convoy duties the Group returned to Liverpool for repairs.
28 March sailed out again and on 06 May she sank the U 473.
The next patrol from 29 May till 01 July not any U boat was sunk.
09 July Captain Walker died of a stoke brought on by heavy strain, after his funeral service at Liverpool, afterwards his body was taken on board the destroyer HMS HESPERUS for burial at sea.
Command was taken over by Commander Wemyss, under his command during his first patrol with the Second Escort Group she sank U 333 on 31 July, U 736 on 06 August and U 385 on 11 August 1944.
Then she went for a refit to Falmouth from 30 September till 13 December. She joined then the 22 Escort Group, which the STARLING joined in January 1945. Some sources give she sank on 16 January the U 482, but actually she went already missing in December 1944 in the North Channel. Possible lost due to mines north west of Malin Head around 07 December.
12 February 1945 she went to the Tyne for a long refit with the intention thereafter to sail to the Pacific and join there the Pacific Fleet. But the end of the war in the Pacific changed this works, and she was laid up at Devonport.
End 1945 she went to Portsmouth Dockyard for a conversion to a training ship, she was disarmed for her role as a Navigation Training Ship, with class-rooms built in and extra trainings bridges.
March 1946 she commenced her new role with Pendant No F 66 in and around Portsmouth till 1959 when she passed to the Portsmouth reserve Group to lay up.
1963 Placed on the disposal list.
06 July 1965 she arrived at Queenborough by Lacinots (other source gives Lacmonts) for breaking up.
Source: Ships of the Royal Navy by J J Colledge. Sloops 1926-1946 by Arnold Hague. Max Horton and the Western Approaches by Rear-Admiral W.S.Chalmers. Leaflet from St Helena Post. http://uboat.net/
STARLING HMS 1943
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D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen
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